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High School Football

DUNMORE - That fire burning in the Old Forge players' bellies got tempered for just a little while during the postgame medal ceremony.

Driven by a loss in last year's District 2 Class A final, the Blue Devils overpowered top-seeded and defending champion Dunmore, 27-7, Friday night that set off a wild celebration.

"This has been burning a hole in the pit of my stomach since last year," said Old Forge senior tailback Brandon Yescavage, who had 225 yards rushing and three touchdowns. "We wanted redemption and we got it."

Old Forge (11-1) won its second district title in the last three seasons and will play the winner of today's District 4 final between Southern Columbia and South Williamsport, next week in Shamokin.

"We played real intense," said Old Forge quarterback Jake Manetti, who added 77 yards passing and 28 yards rushing. "We were looking forward to this game all week.

"We knew it was going to be an old Big 11 game and our line came out and got the best of this matchup."

In the much-anticipated rematch of not only last season's dramatic, 7-6, slugfest that Dunmore won, but also a 21-16 win by Dunmore from Week 4, Old Forge used its size, strength and intensity to seize the gold.

Led by Yescavage, who now has 2,050 yards and 38 touchdowns on the season, the Blue Devils kept chipping away at the clock by moving the chains and keeping the Dunmore offense on the sidelines.

"We had to stay low, because they have big kids over there," Old Forge senior tackle Joey Bruno said. "We had to come off the ball and keep coming off the ball.

"We preached playing a complete 48 minutes."

Defensively, Old Forge turned in an equally dominant effort. Playing with tenacity and determination up front, and accelerating through tackles, the Blue Devils limited Dunmore to 56 total yards in 26 plays through the first 40 minutes, while building a 27-0 lead.

Dunmore tailback Daiqwon Buckley, who entered the game with 2,252 yards rushing, while averaging 11.6 yards per carry, had just 70 yards on 21 carries with 38 yards coming on the final six carries of his career.

He finished his four years with 6,073 yards and 84 touchdowns.

"We knew that Buckley is the big player in the area," said Old Forge linebacker Jorden Sekol, who had seven solo tackles. "We knew that if we could slow him, we could slow Dunmore and we were able to do that."

Old Forge wasted little time in reversing the outcome of the last meeting between the two state-ranked teams. And it did so by doing something it failed to do in Week 4 when it fumbled the opening kickoff.

Joey Gutowski fielded this kick and sprinted along his team's sideline for a 58-yard return as the Blue Devils set up shop at the Dunmore 30-yard line. Seven plays later, Manetti hit Sekol for a 12-yard touchdown for a 6-0 lead with 8:35 left in the first quarter.

Then, Old Forge's defense responded.

Dunmore (11-1) tried to answer and converted two fourth downs to keep its first drive moving toward the goal line. But on the third fourth down, this time at the 3, Shane Schuback tackled Buckley for a 2-yard loss, stymieing the march.

Then, Yescavage darted to his left, cut off a block from Bruno and raced 84 yards for a touchdown that made it 14-0 with 11:17 to go in the half.

"This was a very physical game and it was won up front," Dunmore coach Jack Henzes said. "Their offensive line did an excellent job and Yescavage kept bouncing off tackles and gaining extra yards."

Old Forge halted the Bucks in their tracks on their next possession and chewed up yards and the clock on a 17-play drive. But, it produced zero points after three straight incompletions in the final 43 seconds of the half.

On Dunmore's first possession of the second half, Manetti intercepted a pass, and Old Forge went on the move again, only this time it would not be denied.

It took 15 plays, and 6 minutes and 46 seconds to go 69 yards, and featured five first downs and 27 yards rushing by Yescavage, who capped it with a 2-yard touchdown that pushed the margin to 20-0.

"Once we started to get a push, we knew we were the more physical team and we were able to get to the second level," Old Forge senior tackle Ryan Paulish said.

Corey Souryavong had a sack that sent Dunmore reeling on its next drive and an incompletion on third down forced a punt.

Old Forge went right back to pounding a Dunmore defense that had yielded 144.4 yards rushing per game, then struck for a big play when Gutowski hauled in a 39-yard pass that set up an 8-yard score by Yescavage.

"We preached all week about staying low," Old Forge senior guard Paul Papi said. "We knew that we could run the ball and everything really came together for us in the running game."

With only 8 minutes remaining in the second half, Old Forge had run 27 plays, while Dunmore had run five for 2 yards.

And the only thing left for the Blue Devils was to accept their medals.

"We really knew that we had to wrap up Daiqwon and stop him," Schuback said. "We had a great week of practice and we did a great job of tackling.

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